About us

The MAHD Framework was founded by Dorian Simpson and Gary Hinkle with input from a wide range of companies from Intel to Technicolor.  The effort started with two problems and a need. The first problem is that traditional NPD processes, such as stage-gate systems, are not very effective. As much as we tried to make them work for years, they start with too many assumptions, are contentious by nature and limit real collaboration. The second problem is that our experiences with Agile methods (starting over 10 years ago) were positive, but there were no guidelines to make it consistently work for hardware-based products.

We’ve seen many companies trying to directly apply Scrum or other Agile for SW methods directly to hardware development efforts, even going as far as writing user stories to define every specification and attempting to develop a working prototype every two weeks. While this might work for some projects, it’s more likely to create frustration and result in abandoning the core principles of Agile.  These problems created the need to develop the MAHD Framework.

MAHD is designed to use the key methods and principles of Agile while defining a flexible set of tools that meet the needs of companies that develop physical products.